Blog Three. Do The Right Thing. "We're Still Standing."

"My people, my people. What can I say? Say what I can. I saw it but I didn't believe it. I didn't believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together? Together are we gonna live?"—Mister Senor Love Daddy.

DA MAYOR. Where'd you sleep?
MOTHER SISTER.  I didn't.
DA MAYOR.  I hope the block is still standing.
MOTHER SISTER.  We're still standing.

SAL.  You keep [the money].
MOOKIE.  No, you keep it.
SAL.  You keep it.
MOOKIE.  No, you keep it.
SAL.  I don't believe this shit.
MOOKIE.  Believe it.
SAL.  Are you sick?
MOOKIE.  Hot as a motherfucker, but I'm all right though.
SAL.  Well, they say it's even going to get hotter today...What are you going to do with yourself?
MOOKIE.  Make the money.  Get paid.  Sal, I gotta go see my son.  If it's all right with you.
Sal nods yes.

"I'm gonna kill somebody today."—Sal.

Here's the scene of the destruction of Sal's Famous.  Listen to what Mookie says when he throws the garbage can through the window.  Look too at the reaction of the crowd when Coconut Sid persuades ML not to go after Sonny and Kim (and their little girl). 

I've seen this film at least ten or twelve times.  I know what is coming.  And every time I see the film I always wish that Sal doesn't open the door to Ella and Cee and Punchy and Ahmed. And I always wish Radio Raheem and Buggin' Out don't get in Sal's face and Buggin' Out doesn't call him a "guinea bastard"—and that Sal doesn't call Buggin' Out a "n----r" and destroy Radio Raheem's boom box.  It all seems so avoidable.

Radio Raheem's death this time was more painful for me than it's been the first twelve times I've seen the movie. Yet the very end of the film seems hopeful: three guys, two black and one Latino, are tossing a basketball around (are they Punchy or Ahmad and Stevie?).  The street is beginning to get cleared.  Old folks are going to church (it is Sunday after all).  Life goes on.  Carl Rosenbaum said years ago, when I told him we were watching this movie, that it was too hopeful.

So....

•Your reaction to the riot: from what Buggin' Out, Radio Raheem and Smiley demanding Sal put up pictures of black people to the police's assault on the neighborhood to that terrible keening shriek that Mother Sister makes in the midst of all the horror.  And along with your reaction: why did it happen? Is there someone(s) to blame? Could it have been avoided? Was it inevitable? And what do you make of Mookie throwing the trashcan, shouting "Hate" as he does so? A lot of questions, I realize: but important ones.


A couple more points. The film is dedicated to the families of Eleanor Bumpers, Michael Griffiths, Arthur Miller, Edmund Perry, Yvonne Smallwood, and Michael Stewart, all killed by the NYC police.  Second, the film ends with a song by smooth jazz singer Al Jarreau that plays over the credits.  It's really quite a beautiful song—perhaps not what one would expect at the end of such an intense movie.  But Spike Lee loves contradiction and conflict.  And he has a great taste in music.

One more thing.  Mookie is still delivering pizzas for Sal's Famous.

Blog Two. Do The Right Thing. "As Much As You Say N------- This And N------- That, All Your Favorite People Are 'N-------s.'" Due Sunday by 4.

Radio Raheem tells the story of love and hate

Sal and Pino have a heart to heart

Here is one of the most famous and controversial scenes in the film—the "racist rant," preceded by the fascinating conversation between Mookie and Pino. Pino's favorite basketball, movie, and—secretly—music stars are all black.  But..."They're Black, but not really Black.  They're more than Black.  It's different."  Which slides into Mookie, Pino, Stevie, Sonny, and Officer Long revealing their deep seated racial and ethnic prejudices to the audience.  It's not realism: but it's real.  Lee would do something similar in 25th Hour, his post 9/11 film (go ahead and take a look at it).  The Do The Right Thing rant, though never fails to make me sit up and gape.

"Mookie, if I love you, I love you.  But if I hate you..." Radio Raheem.

PINO. I'm sick of n----s. It's like I come to work, it's "Planet of the Apes." I don't like being around them. They're animals.
SAL. Why do you have so much hate in you?
PINO. Why? You want to know why? My friends laugh at me all the time, laugh right in my face, tell me, "Go to Bed-Sty. Go feed the Moulies."
SAL. Do your friends put money in your pocket? Pay your rent? Food on your plate? They're not your friends. If they were, they wouldn't laugh at you.
PINO. Pop, what can I say? I don't wanna be here. they don't want us here. We should stay in our own neighborhood, stay in Bensonhurst. And the n-----s should stay in theirs...
SAL. I've never had trouble with these people...Yeah, sure, some of them don't like us, but most of them do. I mean, for Chrissake, Pino, they grew up on my food. I'm very proud of that...What I'm trying to say is Sal's Famous Pizzeria is here to stay."

The middle part of the film lightens up a little, doesn't it? Buggin Out's quixotic attempt to spur a boycott of Sal's; the tender scene between Da Mayor and Mother Sister on her stoop; the look on both Mookie and Pino's face as Jade is chatted up by Sal. And there's Mookie and Pino and the rants.  Hate what Pino says; but at least we begin to understand what makes him so angry. Then there are the three scenes with Radio Raheem: the famous love-hate moment, an homage to the classic 1955 film Night of the Hunter; and the scenes with the Koreans and Sal. Radio looms large in the film: a young man of few words but with loud music. He evokes different reponses from different people: a little boy runs alongside him at one point, clearly emulating him; he is well-liked by the other young black people on the street, Mookie in particular; the Korean couple are intimidated by him; and Sal...well, Sal doesn't like his music in his pizzeria, to say the least. (Did you notice how Sal angrily tosses the pizza slices Radio ordered in the oven? Very different than the way he lovingly put together Jade's sandwich.)

So:

1. What moment or scene particularly jumped out at you, or stayed with you, from Friday's viewing? And why?

2. Radio Raheem and Sal: the two physically largest figures in the movie. You've already written about Sal (whose last name is Frangione by the way).  So what is your reaction to Radio Raheem?
How would you characterize him—if you had to describe him to someone who hasn't seen the film, how would you do it?  AND: aside from their similar sizes, do you see any similarities between him and Sal?

3. The scene I quote above between Sal and Pino. I think it is one of the saddest, tenderest, and most infuriating scenes in the film. You can disagree with me. But I do ask: what is your reaction to it? Sal asks an important question of his son—"Why do you have so much hate in you?" Pino answers: but there's more to the reason than what he says. So assuming that's a legitimate statement, why might he be so full of hate, along with what he tells his father?

I'm not expecting you to spend an hour on this: but 20-30 minutes is not asking too much, particularly since this is your only homework in the class at this moment. On the last blog there were a few distinctly short comments—I downgraded them (feel free to talk with me if you think you're one of those folks).  It takes me an hour usually to write a post question. Feel free to comment on what others in the class write; agree, disagree, use it as a starting or ending point to what you're writing.

Finally: here's Mookie and Radio Raheem and the story of love and hate.  See you all on Monday.